Nigerian presidents going abroad for medical treatment has become such a familiar headline that we’ve almost come to expect it. But if you thought, like me, that it’s a recent pattern, I have news for you.

In his 1965 Independence Day speech, the country’s first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, announced that he had been ill and would be travelling abroad for specialist consultation and treatment.

It would take another 45 years before a Nigerian president died in office, after a long period of medical care overseas. What does this cycle say about the state of Nigerian healthcare?

That question, and others, about the recurring patterns in Nigeria’s journey, shaped our October 1 story analysing all the Independence Day speeches since 1960. We discovered the moods that defined each decade of Nigeria’s post-independence history, the biggest concerns of each era, and the unfulfilled promises that 14 leaders have recycled.

You can read all the speeches we found here.

What Happened in October 2025

2,000 cool people followed us

• We crossed 17,000 new followers on Instagram last month, after more than 2,000 people decided we are worth keeping up with. We published a few stories that may have convinced them to make this commitment.
• For our social carousel stories, the cell experience of an Ikoyi Prison inmate in 1972 struck a chord, as much as the Ali Must Go protests of 1978, which shares some patterns with the #EndSARS protests of 2020 that clocked five years last month.
• A personal favourite was the story of the four young men who hijacked a Nigerian plane in 1993, this time told with a focus on Ethelbert Igwe, the innocent airplane crew member who lost his life and is often left out of the retelling.
• In our Previously in Nigeria video series, King Sunny Ade’s near-Grammys moment in 1983 stood out, drawing over 20,000 views and nearly 2,000 likes.
• We also wrapped up the rollout of projects from the first cohort of The Archivi.ng Fellowship. If you missed them, you can find everything on our projects page.

Scanning was on hold

• I mentioned in last month’s dispatch that we were moving to our new office in Yaba, and setting it up took most of the month. During that time, the team worked fully remote, which meant no in-person meetings and non-existent digitisation. That crawl is over now, as we opened the new office a few days ago and operations are back in full swing. So spread the word: we’re back, and yes, we’re accepting office-warming gifts.
• Speaking of gifts, as part of The More Things Change initiative, we aim to digitise two million pages of newspapers and magazines by the end of 2027. We’re currently at 200,000 pages and need your help to close the gap. How can you help? Give us your newspapers and magazines from any point in Nigerian history up to 2010, and we’ll return them later, if you want. If you have any to share, fill out this form.

What’s Next: November 2025

Yesterday, we closed applications for the second cohort of The Archivi.ng Fellowship. This month, we’ll be sorting through more than 1,000 submissions to select the six people who will join the programme.

We’ll be speaking to many applicants before arriving at the final list later this month.

See you on December 1.